The speed at which today's society expects and even demands information concerning identity of the sender is growing at an unprecedented rate. Often, the success of a particular business arrangement or, in some cases, the success of the business itself depends upon the ability of several parties to know who they are communicating with and their location. This need is also growing rapidly in many arenas outside that of business as well. The parties may be mobile and unable to transfer the desired information at a particular location due to security problems or other reasons. A sending party, whose location is not precisely known, may need to indicate to a receiving party that another time and place is more appropriate for a communication to occur. Both the sending and receiving parties may require some type of verification of the other for security reasons.
Pagers are one of the most popular ways that a sending party and a receiving party may initiate a communication. Pagers are inexpensive to own and operate and may be left operational for extended periods of time, making them essentially universally available. Many pagers in use today only display a call-back number of a sending party. If the receiving party does not readily recognize the call-back number, the receiving party may not respond either in a timely manner or at all. There are many situations where a sending party may be forced to use a call-back number that is different than one normally used, such as accidents, emergencies and while traveling. These situations, if occurring at other than expected times, may not receive the priority from the receiving party that was expected or hoped for by the sending party.
Often, by the time that the receiving party responds, the call-back number is no longer valid for the sending party and the communication is lost or delayed. The ability of the receiving party to quickly determine the nature and response time appropriate to a call-back number may be critical to the success of both business and other communications. Therefore, what is needed in the art is a way to effectively and efficiently provide ancillary information to a pager.